


Random representations of love

by Ghelik



Series: Life after the Mountain [4]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cute John, Declarations Of Love, Emori being awesome, F/M, Fluff, Love, M/M, Post-Mount Weather, Post-Season/Series 02, unbetad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-07-14 10:50:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7168100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghelik/pseuds/Ghelik
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>5 times people saw Emori and Murphy being cute with each other</p>
            </blockquote>





	Random representations of love

BRYAN

  
Bryan isn't one of the original hundred, but he moved in with Miller, because… Well. Because it's Miller: strong and kind. He who has him stuttering like a kid with his first crush. It is fun, the sort of freedom they get under Bellamy’s sort-of rule.

  
If he’s completely honest, he doesn’t really understand what all the fuss is about, or why they’ve built a  separate village inside Arkadia's walls, but it’s fun and it’s nice to be seen and not pushed around for being too young or too inexperienced or from the wrong station. In their part of Arkadia – Dropship 2.0 or Droptwo for short– as long as he pulls his weight, he’s accepted. He gets to be the leader of one of the gathering groups because he was very good at earth skills on the Ark and is one of the best trackers in Droptwo. This allows him access to the door Raven has rigged for them to be able to slip through without being fried or taking down the whole electrified fence that surrounds Arkadia.

  
He doesn’t know Murphy when he gets assigned to his group, knows only that the delinquents – what’s left of them, really – don’t like him, and that he keeps to himself and to his grounder friend.

  
Murphy knows a lot about plants. He finds them quickly and has to look at Lincoln’s drawings only once or twice before committing them to memory. So he’s useful and unobtrusive and Bryan likes that about him. He’s also sarcastic as hell and is always making these small comments under his breath that – when directed at anybody else - are funny, but can get rather annoying.

  
It’s nearly sundown and the group is making their way back to Droptwo. They’re tired, hauling their packs full of herbs and nuts, talking and joking around. Just another day on the ground. As usual, Murphy’s taking the rear. Sometimes they forget he’s even there during the day, and only notice him when he makes a random comment, answering with his dry humor to something stupid someone has said. Sometimes Bryan completely forgets he’s there until he sees him at the headcount before entering the camp.

  
Maybe that’s why it comes as a surprise when he hears him talk, rather angrily and rather loudly: "Her name is Emori _."_

  
They’re six in Bryan's gathering group. Bryan is not the only one who wasn’t part of the original hundred. Actually, only a girl called Amber and Tony were part of them. Cat and Maxy are a few years older than Amber, Murphy and him, but they’re good guys. Not really ‘grounder-huggers’, but they mean well. Tony juts his chin out, Cat and Maxy on either side.

  
Murphy stands very still, his eyes narrowed. Bryan shoots a look at Amber, standing next to him with an exasperated expression.

  
"What’s he said?" whispers Bryan to her.

  
But Tony must have heard because he grins all feral and answers: "I called her a Grounder-freak." Tony smirks, crossing his big arms across his puffed chest. "As if being a grounder wasn’t bad enough." He narrows his eyes at Murphy, raising his eyebrows he adds. "What are you going to do about it?"

  
Murphy vibrates on the spot for one, two heartbeats, and then launches himself at Tony with such force, he manages to knock him down, slamming his fist against the other one’s face. Tony recovers from the shock soon enough and they roll around on the grass.

Watching Murphy fight is like watching someone trying to do two contradictory things at the same time: like he's trying to curl into a tight ball and beat the living fuck out of Tony at the same time. His blows - when he manages to land them - are hard and sure. But Murphy's half Tony's size, probably less than half his weight. Plus Tony knows how to fistfight. 

  
 Before Bryan can snap out of it, Murphy is on his back getting beaten to a pulp. Amber steps between them, managing to catch Tony’s arm mid-swing. "That’s enough!"

  
After that Murphy picks himself up from the ground and limps slowly towards Droptwo. Bryan wants to ask him if he’s ok, tell him that he shouldn’t listen to what others have to say about his arrangement with the Emori-girl. The words get tangled in his throat and he doesn’t say anything.

  
They walk the rest of the way in silence, all eyes shifting towards the limping boy. Even Tony looks a bit ashamed, but he doesn’t apologize.

  
When they arrive at Droptwo they’re met by Octavia and someone from the kitchen group, the gathering group leaves their haul at the sorting table and Murphy goes towards his tent and is nearly instantly intercepted by his grounder-friend. She stops dead in her tracks when she sees him and Bryan cannot take his eyes off them. Because they’re like ten feet away from each other: Murphy looking at the ground, holding his arm against his side and his eyes downcast, Emori’s grin vanishes instantly and her eyes darken. She turns towards the gathering group, watching them for a minute, before launching herself straight at Tony, slamming her bare hand against the bigger man's neck. She has him on the ground within three swift kicks, her face twisted into something ugly and dangerous. Bryan is suddenly reminded of the fact that these grounders are actually trained fighters, killers.

  
Lincoln manages to tear her away from Tony, bodily rising her from the ground and holding her against his chest like she weighs nothing. She twists in his arms, an ugly snarl on her face, ignoring Lincoln's soothing words.

  
"Em!"

  
Murphy says something in grounder and she snaps out of it, suddenly limp in Lincoln’s arms, her lips pressed together. Tony must have a concussion or a death-wish because he spits blood and: "Run to your master, you grounder-bitch!"

  
For a moment everyone looks at him like he’s sprouted a second head. Octavia, who had stepped between Emori and Tony takes a step back, Lincoln’s arms loosen, letting Emori fall to the ground, the girl looks murderous.

Murphy’s smile is stained with red, he shrugs. "What can I say? My master is awesome."

  
To everyone’s surprise, Emori takes Murphy’s hand and leads him away.

Bryan watches them disappear into their tent.

And that’s that.

 

RAVEN

There are some things in this world that are absolute. For example, it is true that she won’t be able to walk without the brace ever again. She knows that has built her brace and perfected it until it’s the coolest thing anybody on the ground owns – she’s awesome like that. Other things that are true include her mother being an alcoholic and not giving a fuck about her, Wick being too much of a coward to move to their side of Arkadia and Murphy being a dick.

She doesn’t really blame him anymore for her leg. Not really. He apologized – sort of – and she understands – again, sort of. She understands where he was when he shot her. She also understands he hadn’t really meant her any harm. He’s a dick, but not a murderer. Those are undeniable truths. Another undeniable truth is that Murphy’s in love.

  
It’s so painfully obvious it makes her want to barf most of the time.

  
It’s been three weeks since Octavia’s hunting group found him bleeding out in the middle of the road with that petite grounder girl with the messed-up hand. Raven was sure they would leave as soon as he could stand, but by now he’s nearly completely healed and he’s still in the gathering group- because nobody will trust him with anything inside the walls.

  
Emori has turned into something like an assistant because she kept looking at Raven's tech and tinkering with it when she thought nobody was watching. Raven had been pretty sure that grounders didn’t have a clue about tech, but this one soaks everything up like a sponge and, now that Wick isn’t around anymore, she’s a willing ear at which she can babble, so she has nothing against the arrangement.

  
Emori appears every morning at her door and disappears when the gathering party comes back, which keeps Murphy well out of Ravens way. They don’t eat around the fire in the square or in the long-house with the rest of Droptwo's habitants, taking instead their rations to a dark corner and keeping quietly to themselves, so nobody will be bothered by them and kick them out.

  
Raven doesn’t usually see much of Murphy, which is fine by her. She might not blame him, but that doesn’t mean she likes him.

  
She doesn’t really leave her workshop during the day, but sometimes people mess up her communication system and she has to hobble to wherever the problem is because she is surrounded by idiots. This time the problem appears in Arkadia proper. Arkadians are still wary of grounders so she leaves Emori with some assembling and goes to find the problem. It takes longer than she anticipated and she’s tired and angry at those fucking morons when she enters her workshop.

  
Murphy’s there, sitting at Emori’s feet because the only other stool is Ravens and he doesn’t have a death wish.

 

They’re talking grounder, very softly and Emori’s laughing with her good hand covering her mouth and the bad one between his. Raven has never seen the bad hand before, because even though the heat is chocking everyone in camp, Emori keeps it covered at all times. She can see it now and it is a disgusting: with two long and thick pincer-like fingers and the others twisted and sprouting out of her hand at bizarre angles. The skin is scarred and twisted and the nails are either black and thick like talons or completely missing.

  
Yet Murphy’s sitting with that ugly hand between his, threading little flowers on the thin copper-wire bracelet around her wrist like it is no big deal. He looks up at Emori and it’s such an open and honest look something in Raven’s chest twists with jealousy and sadness.

  
And then her stupid brace creaks and Murphy jumps to his feet, turning to her. It’s as if someone has slammed a shutter on his face, all that love vanishing, leaving the same sneaky and sarcastic dick he’s always been in its wake.

  
Murphy shifts slightly, turning to face her completely. It's a very discrete movement, barely noticeable. And then he’s suddenly standing between Emori and Raven, obstructing her view of the deformed hand. The grounder covers her hand with her thick glove before standing next to him.

  
They have the same arrogant I-don’t-give-a-fuck-about-you-look in their eyes. It’s sort of unnerving.

 

LINCOLN

  
The new peace between skaikru and trikru has ensured that he can step out of Arkadia without being shot on sight by his peo- by his _former_ people. Being able to walk among the trees again makes things easier. The artificial structures skaikru likes so much are stuffy and harsh. He doesn’t like them, but he made a choice and now he has to follow through, he knew that from the moment he escaped Indra’s camp and went against Heda’s orders.

 

Skaikru are a strange bunch, though, with a lot of rules and customs he doesn’t really understand, but he’s learning and he has new friends. Plus there’s Octavia, with her easy smile and shining eyes.

  
She also likes the woods, so they often slip out of the busy life in Droptwo to hunt or… well… just be together.  
They have a secret spot near Waterfall-lake. There they are close enough to camp that they can return quickly, should something happen, but far enough, that they can pretend like nothing else exists.

  
Octavia laying between his legs, back pressed against his chest. She’s playing with one of his bracelets, relaxed and happy. They’ll have to go back soon since they’re the only two at “their part of camp” that know anything about healing, but for now it’s pleasant and quiet and that’s when they hear.... Something. If anyone had asked him exactly what it was he wouldn’t be able to tell, but it’s there – because obviously there has to be something going wrong when he’s drowsy and content.

  
Octavia snaps to attention in the blink of an eye and crawls out of his embrace between one heartbeat and the next. He stifles a groan, unsheathing one of his knives, joining her at the edge of the shelve they’re hiding in. Octavia peers down at Waterfall-lake and freezes, eyes wide, breath snagging in her throat. He looks down, ready to jump down and fight off whoever decided to disturb his peace.

  
A few feet beneath them frikdreina and the somewhat mouthy skaikru boy are sitting in the shallow part of the lake. She kneeling behind him and him laying on his back in the water, with his head against her belly, looking up at her while she puts both her hands into his hair.

  
The boy pushes himself down until he’s sitting in front of her while she puts something in his hair and starts massaging his scalp.

  
Lincoln can see the boy – Murphy everyone calls him – closing his eyes with a blissful expression, he’s nearly glowing with relaxed happiness, melting beneath her ugly hands – and how he can bear such a touch is something Lincoln cannot understand.

  
They’re sitting there in the water, dressed only in their underclothes – the rest discarded a few feet away in the shore and, even though it’s being a very warm summer, he realizes that this is the first time he’s seeing either of them so lightly dressed. He understands why she covers her body with that deformity and all. But Murphy’s body is littered in scars, a show of his strength as a warrior. He can see them even from here, glinting pink and white on his skin.

  
Next to him, Octavia makes a distressed sound and looks suddenly away, face burning a bright red. On the pool beneath them, Murphy turns to the girl and embraces her. Even though they stay just like that, embracing, Lincoln feels extremely uncomfortable all of a sudden, like he’s intruding on something he shouldn’t. He turns and follows Octavia back out of the woods.

 

NATE MILLER

As a rule, Nate Miller – o Miller, which is how everybody calls him anyway - doesn’t like conflict. Has never liked it and probably never will. He also has nothing against Lincoln or Emori – or the rest of the grounders he’s met that haven’t tried to kill him. He even enjoys the company of the hunters his group sometimes hunts along with. They’re quiet and funny and have made a point of respecting the skaikru hunters and this year they’re officially invited to their Mid-Summer festival, which, if it has anything to do with the Winter-festival and the Spring-festival they were sort-of invited to is going to be a-ma-zing.

  
So, yeah, he avoids conflict as much as possible, which is why he hasn’t really talked to Murphy after Tony beat him to a bloody pulp. Tony wasn’t their favorite person in the Skybox he got douchier on the ground and now, since most of the hundred are seen as something like “earth experts”, his ego has puffed into unbelievable dimensions. He had no right to mouth-trash

He had no right to trash mouth Emori, and he should have known better than to poke Murphy.

  
Miller and Murphy shared a cell in the Skybox, they were friends for a while, then they were launched down to earth and everything was strange and new. Murphy seemed to disappear in the blink of an eye. Miller’s not proud of his part in trying to hang him. He was supposed to be Murphy’s friend. They had been living together in that Skybox cell for three years. They were supposed to have each other’s backs. Well…

  
That’s why he hasn’t really talked to him. He knows he’ll just shrug it off, make a sarcastic comment or make the moment awkward. Murphy doesn’t do personal stuff. He’s always tried his damn hardest to be an asshole. Hell, he even might use his apology against him for all he knows.  
  


"You should talk to him."

  
Monty’s voice cuts through his thoughts like a knife and he’s startled out of his brooding. He realizes he’s been staring at Murphy’s tent for at least ten minutes now and shakes his head. "He doesn’t want to talk to me."

  
Monty arches an eyebrow and he’s tempted to tell him to go talk to Jasper. But that would be cruel and mean and Monty doesn’t deserve it. So Miller goes with the truth instead.

  
"I wouldn’t know what to tell him."

"You haven’t talked to him in nearly two years something will come up." He bites the inside of his cheek and Monty huffs. "Fine, I’ll go with you."

  
He gives Monty a grateful smile. Together they make their way to the tent.

"Murphy?" he calls ducking inside.

There’s a cut on the other end of the tent, and he can see shadows moving, can hear them talking softly in trigadeslang. Miller and Monty exchange a look and cross to the other flap. Miller opens his mouth to call again, but the words die on his throat.

  
There’s a small fire with a pot hanging slightly askew on top. A small table covered in herbs and rabbit innards. Murphy and Emory are sitting cross-legged on the floor, him directly in front of the fire, her next to the table.  
Emori’s holding two eggs in front of her eyes, sucking her cheeks in and opening and closing her mouth like a fish, Murphy turns to her.

  
The moment when Murphy’s face splits into a grin and he barks a startled laugh, Miller decides this was a bad idea. He has no right to intrude. He wants to go back and pretend he’s never even been here, but Murphy must see him, because he’s suddenly serious, straight-backed, his face shutting off.

  
Miller feels a great sense of loss, even though he shouldn’t because he wasn’t meant to see that.  
Emori turns her head towards them and for a moment they all stand there looking at each other without saying anything.

  
"What are you doing here, Miller? And Monty?"

  
Miller opens and closes his mouth feeling like a boy caught stealing credits from his mother to buy sweets.

"You’re Miller?" Emori asks standing up. She’s holding her bad arm behind her back because she isn’t wearing her glove.

  
"You don’t need to…" he breaks off. It feels kind of presumptuous and wrong to say it out loud. But he must have said something right because Emori smiles and Murphy relaxes.  
  


"Are you staying for dinner?" she asks. "John makes a mean stamstew."

Murphy blushes. "Well, you're a shitty cook. So someone had to learn."

  
"You love it," she scoffs.

  
"That’s beside the point," Murphy cuts his eyes to Miller and Monty. "You staying or what?"

"Of course. It can’t be worse than the food at the canteen." Monty puts a hand on Miller's shoulder, bodily pushing him down to the ground.

"Yeah. How many times can someone eat overcooked rabbit anyway?"

  
Emori plops herself next to Murphy, stealing bites out of the pot when he’s not looking, and getting swatted at with a wooden spoon whenever he notices. The conversation starts awkwardly, with lots of uncomfortable silences, but they slowly manage to loosen up. 

  
When Murphy gives them a bowl full of a steaming stew that will haunt his dreams from now till eternity, it feels like some kind of forgiveness.

  
And then Emori smiles wolfishly at Miller and says: "So, you must have stories of John in the Sky."

  
"Miller," Murphy shoots him a warning glare, "I will end you." But there’s no venom behind his words and Miller cannot help the smile that crawls on his face. It feels good to be sitting next to Monty, around a fire, remembering a simpler time.

  
"Well. When we hit puberty, the first thing that grew on Murphy was his nose. It was funny how he kept banging into stuff."

 

Murphy’s stare is icy.

  
"Well, at least I didn’t look like a fucking bowl of rice," he throws a look at Emori’s baffled expression and mouths ' _worst acne-case ever_ '.

  
They’re laughing. It feels good to do so with a stomach full of appetizing food. He feels like curling on the ground and taking a nap, which is what Monty’s doing, his head heavy on his shoulder. From where he’s lying in Emori’s lap, Murphy smiles up at him.

  
This… This feels good.

 

GINA

It’s raining. Which is good, since the last few days have been so humid that even breathing seemed like a chore. Plus her hair tends to curl and it was a terrible mess. So rain is good. Less good is the fact that their ground turns into sticky mud and that Bellamy keeps dragging it everywhere in their small house. And how cool is it that she has a house?

 

She was supposed to be stranded forever on Factory Station, probably meet a boy at the Market and have a child, who would lead the same life she had and would have a child, who would live the same life his parents would have lived and, at some point in that chain, someone was going to go back to earth. But not her, never her.

  
Yet, here she is, standing on the ground, rushing across the fence between Arkadia and Droptwo. The fire on the square has gone out with the rain, but there’s light coming from some of the huts and the long-house. She can hear music coming from the long-house, so she turns and goes towards it, crossing the square as quickly as possible.

  
Gina’s halfway there when lightning illuminates the square and she sees two figures jumping across the empty square. She thinks they’re coming to the long-house and waits for them, turning to tell them to hurry up.

  
They’re not coming. They’re running around, hand in hand, jumping into the puddles and splashing like little children. She can hear their laughter from where she's standing. What are they doing? Do they want to catch their deaths?

  
These children… really…  
She watches them spin in the rain for a moment. Before calling out "Hey! You’re gonna get sick!"

  
"Go float yourself!" calls the boy.

  
The girl laughs, stumbling a bit and catching herself on his shoulder. The boy is grinning.

  
"Suit yourselves," Gina mumbles before running to the long-house.  
Let them be reckless if they want to, it's none of her business. 


End file.
